Gaulle named Muselier commander of the Free French naval forces and, provisionally, commander of the air force; these roles were later confirmed in 1941 with the creation of the Conseil national. The same day, Admiral Muselier wrote his own appeal, addressed to sailors and pilots. He assembled an embryonic General Staff with Ship-of-the-Line Captain (Capitaine de Vaisseau) Thierry d'Argenlieu and a junior officer (Enseigne de vaisseau) named Voisin, before leaving on a mission to Alexandria in order to attempt a coup d'état in Syria. In 1940, the Vichy government sentenced Muselier to death in absentia and confiscated all of his possessions. In 1941, it forfeited his French citizenship. On 1 January 1940, Churchill ordered Muselier's arrest on the basis of documents suggesting he was passing secrets to the Vichy. After the documents were shown to be forgeries, Churchill was forced to apologize to de Gaulle. Under orders of General de Gaulle, Muselier led the conquest of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon on 24 December 1941, unloading three French corvettes and the submarine cruiser Surcouf from Halifax and installing the enseigne de vaisseau Alain Savary as Commissaire of Free France, which angered Roosevelt. De Gaulle had initially declined the suggestion of invasion made by Muselier, but had desired to affirm French sovereignty after learning of Canadian and British desires for the archipelago. That eventually led the admiral to resign of his post of Commissaire. Not especially loyal to de Gaulle, Muselier was let down two years later, in Algiers, because of serious political divergences. Preferring to work under General Henri Giraud, he served as the temporary civil and military person in charge for Algiers in June 1943 and even appeared to act as the head of an anti-Gaullist putsch, before de Gaulle became head of the French Committee of National Liberation () on 3 June. After having been the chief of the naval delegation to the military Mission for German Affairs, he retired from the navy in 1946. References French Navy admirals French military personnel of World War I French military personnel of World War II 1882 births 1965 deaths Military personnel of the Free French Naval Forces Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur French Ministers of Merchant Marine Chiefs of the Staff of the French Air and Space Force